An electronic switching element made of vitreous semiconductor materials is described. The switch changes from high to low conductivity or vice versa without changing its state of matter. A plurality of contact electrodes is disposed thereon, and no barrier layer is present. In order to switch from a low conductive to a high conductive state, a highly conductive channel is produced intermediate a control electrode and a base electrode by a control current flowing over the control electrode and t...

A memory cell and a method of fabricating the memory cell having a small active area. By forming a spacer in a window that is sized at the photolithographic limit, a pore may be formed in dielectric layer which is smaller than the photolithographic limit. Electrode material is deposited into the pore, and a layer of structure changing material, such as chalcogenide, is deposited onto the lower electrode, thus creating a memory element having an extremely small and reproducible active area.

A switchable controlling device for an electrical circuit including a semiconductor element and electrodes in low electrical resistance contact therewith, wherein said semiconductor element has a high electrical resistance to provide a blocking condition for substantially blocking current therethrough, wherein the high electrical resistance is substantially instantaneously decreased to a low electrical resistance in response to a voltage above a threshold voltage value, wherein the semiconductor...

Thin film electrical structures, such as threshold switching devices and phase change memory cells, preferably utilizing electrically stable, relatively inert, conductive electrodes including a non-single-crystal deposited film of carbon material, are disclosed. The film of carbon material, which preferably is amorphous and substantially pure, is disposed adjacent to a layer of active material such as an amorphous semiconductor, and serves to prevent undesired degradation of the active material,...

In programmable conductor memory cells, metal ions precipitate out of a glass electrolyte element in response to an applied electric field in one direction only, causing a conductive pathway to grow from cathode to anode. The amount of conductive pathway growth, and therefore the programming, depends, in part, on the availability of metal ions. It is important that the metal ions come only from the solid solution of the memory cell body. If additional metal ions are supplied from other sources, ...

Phase-changeable memory devices include non-volatile memory cells. Each of these non-volatile memory cells may include a phase-changeable diode on a semiconductor substrate and a phase-changeable memory element having a first terminal electrically coupled to a terminal of the phase-changeable diode. This phase-changeable diode may include a lower electrode pattern on the semiconductor substrate, a first phase-changeable pattern on the lower electrode pattern and a gate switching layer pattern on...

A phase-change memory may have a tapered lower electrode coated with an insulator. The coated, tapered electrode acts as a mask for a self-aligned trench etch to electrically separate adjacent wordlines. In some embodiments, the tapered lower electrode may be formed over a plurality of doped regions, and isotropic etching may be used to taper the electrode as well as part of the underlying doped regions.

A switching device comprises a pair of electrodes, an organic insulating layer and an inorganic oxide layer which are held between the electrodes. The organic insulating layer is comprised of an organic compound having at least one .pi.-electron level and the inorganic oxide layer is comprised of a metal oxide. Another switching device comprises a pair of electrodes, an organic insulating thin film provided between the electrodes and said organic insulating thin film in such a manner than an ele...

A non-volatile memory element includes a lower electrode, an upper electrode, a recording layer arranged between the lower electrode and the upper electrode and containing a phase change material, and a bit line directly arranged on the upper electrode. The bit line is formed to be offset to the recording layer. With this arrangement, a contact area between the recording layer and the upper electrode and a contact area between the upper electrode and the bit line can be reduced without providing...

This disclosure relates to an electrically alterable amorphous memory device which can be switched from a high resistance state to a low resistance crystalline state. The device has increases in the concentration of those particular elements at the electrodes to which the respective constituents would migrate during a large number of set-reset cycles. This lessens the decline in the threshold voltage caused by the electromigration of those constituents. There is disclosed a layered structure in ...